Be prepared to see the biggest troop of ugly humans you have ever seen.

Ever been to Arcata, California? Got to see a girl there literally wearing a burlap sack. The university there literally has no address for about 10% of their studies, they just wander in out of the hills.

After previously looking up "bears in Portland", I will not be looking for bears in Portland.

Now a couple locations around there, I might go looking for the legit, four legged variety.

Go dumpster diving. I hear that's pretty popular with the hippies up there. But whatever you do, don't try to fill your rental car with gas by yourself.

As for my friend who lives there, her responses were worthless compared to the above posts.

I hear the Dream of the 90's is still alive there...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVmq9dq6Nsg

Been a few years, but I'm not above dumpster diving. I'm not really planning on it recreationally.

In my younger, poorer days, I did quite a bit of dumpster diving. I'm not about to belittle someone for doing it.

I'm going by myself, and don't really know anyone up there, so I'll have evening to wander to my heart's content.

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I'll either be in downtown, or out by the airport.

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If you're by the airport, you can take Light Rail downtown for a couple bucks (red line goes from the airport all the way downtown). Portland has a pretty awesome and incredibly useful light rail system -- it's an awesome example of what that kind of transportation can be like when you have a metro area that's really dedicated to making it work.

If you have an afternoon to yourself, hike Forest Park. You can take the train to the zoo (the stop for which is in a tunnel) and then take an elevator up to the zoo. There's a forestry center museum, but it's pricey -- more fun is just to hike the trails back down into the city.

If you just have an evening, go downtown and just wander southwest and northwest parts of the city. There's all kinds of neat urban parks and landscapes. I can't think of a city that's better for wandering in than Portland.

I lived there for ten years. Quite a few things I loved about the city, but living there was difficult.